Come Home
by Broadwayfreak5357
Summary: This is my take on events after 2x21, a little bit AU obviously. I'm on another McCord family dinner kick, so this is my response to all of that! Elizabeth attempts cooking, the kids find out where Henry is, Henry comes home, and there's also some fluff because it's so necessary - especially after this episode! Enjoy :)
**A/N: It's me again! 2 stories in 1 week, look at me go! It's not like it's the end of the semester and I'm procrastinating or anything… ;) I think we all were super impacted by 2x21 and Henry's mission in Pakistan, and this is my response to that! For some reason, I just love stories about McCord family dinners hahaha! I was curious to see how the kids dealt with Henry being away, even if they didn't know why, and this is my take on it, so enjoy! Let me know if anything seems OOC or you spot grammar mistakes etc., I'll fix that ASAP. Thanks**

Dinnertime at the McCord household was usually full of light, laughter and teasing, but with Henry gone, it seemed like all the energy had been sucked from the room, or at least from Elizabeth. She moved slowly, trying to prepare dinner, but she wasn't a great cook on her best days. Stevie had already had to prevent a small kitchen fire when her mother left a pot on the stove.

Elizabeth looked gaunt and weary. Dark circles ringed her eyes, and even though she was stress eating scones and pastries like they were going out of style, she recognized that she had lost a bit of weight with constantly obsessing over her husband's safety. She felt adrift without him.

The kids thought he was at a conference in San Diego, and so she tried to play along for their sake. She didn't think it would be this hard, though. She was a former CIA analyst for crying out loud — tradecraft was in her DNA.

Staring off into space at the kitchen counter with a spoon in hand ready to stir the pasta, Elizabeth felt eyes on her. She blinked. Stevie's face came into focus next to her in the kitchen.

She tried to smile reassuringly, although she wasn't sure if she was entirely successful, as Stevie's brow furrowed worryingly.

"Mom? Want to come sit down? Ali set the table already, and the food's all done."

Gently leading her mother to the dining room table, Stevie sighed in relief as her mother sat down, only to get back up again and grab a bottle of wine from the cabinet.

The family sat down, unusually quiet; they felt a Henry McCord-shaped hole at the table. Elizabeth unconvincingly picked at her food as Stevie tried to keep up conversation with her siblings, which allowed Elizabeth to slightly zone out.

"Mom? Earth to Mom? _Mom_?" Stevie was trying to get her mother's attention.

Elizabeth snapped back to reality and tried to give her undivided attention to her children.

"Yeah, Stevie?"

It was Jason who spoke next, cutting off his sister. "Dad's not really at an academic conference, is he?"

 _Crap._ Elizabeth could almost feel the wheels turning in her head as she tried to think. Her reflexes were weirdly slow. After a moment, she smiled and focused on her youngest.

"Yeah, it's some religious scholar conference thing. For his new book, you know, the one he won't shut up about? If I never hear about transubstantiation again, it'll be too soon for me," Elizabeth said offhandedly, as she sipped her wine. She eyed the phone next to her plate again, almost willing it to ring.

"Mom, you've been on a hair-trigger all week," Stevie said uncertainly. "What's wrong? You're acting weirder than normal."

Before Stevie could question her mother any further, the phone rang and Elizabeth's hand shot out to grab it.

"Hello?" She breathed a sigh of relief. "Henry!" Oh thank god." Rubbing a tired hand over her face, she continued. "Hi yeah, we're all here. You're coming home? God I - yeah baby, I'll put you on speaker phone." Elizabeth said tearily.

"Hi nerds! You been good for mom this week?" Henry said with a smile in his voice as he tried to make small talk with his kids.

Elizabeth closed her eyes and listened to the sound of her husband's voice soothe her frayed nerves. Maybe she would finally get more than an hour of sleep tonight, although she hadn't been able to get a full night's sleep since Henry left for Pakistan.

Jason rolled his eyes. His mom was jittery and panicky, and his dad was acting way too fake cheery to be in San Diego. Did the parental units think they were stupid or something?

"Dad where are you? Obviously not at this conference or mom wouldn't have been so upset," he reasoned.

"Honey? Babe? Elizabeth, are you there?" Henry tried not to let his worry seep into his voice.

The kids just stared at their mother. They had never seen her lose her cool, even in the most trying of situations, unless it involved their father.

For the second time that night, Elizabeth snapped back into reality. She clenched her fists under the table and unconsciously leaned toward Henry's voice, coming from the static-y speaker.

"Yeah, babe, I'm here, I'm fine. I just…can't wait for you to come home to me," Elizabeth said. She wanted to keep a brave face for the kids, but couldn't prevent her voice from trembling a little.

Jason jumped in. "You guys are hiding something from us, and that's not okay. What about all of our family meetings? Team McCord is always honest. We know something's up; we're not stupid."

"How much should we tell the kids?" Henry wondered aloud.

"Did you forget, Captain? You're on speaker phone!" Elizabeth said with a chuckle. She paused thoughtfully. "It's up to you, babe. Obviously for security reasons, they can't know everything, but I think they can handle the bare bones. And besides, our kids are tough. They get that from me, you know?" Elizabeth laughed a little bit — the banter with her husband easing the iron cage that had gripped her body ever since Murphy Station left U.S. soil.

Stevie's heart lifted a little when she heard her mother laugh. It was almost like normal. It was like a veil had lifted over this weird, zombie version of her mother in the past days — the real Elizabeth McCord was back.

Henry faked hurt. "Excuse you, Elizabeth Adams McCord! I'm hurt by that statement." He pictured her blue eyes sparkling with amusement. She was always his touchstone; when he was in the Middle East the first time, during Desert Storm, he would think of coming home to her, and that was the only thing that got him through his deployment.

Alison, who had been relatively quiet until now, spoke up. "Okay, enough with the cute, nauseating banter — can we _please_ know what's going on? Even just a little bit?"

Elizabeth took a cleansing breath and rested her palms face down on the table to ground herself.

"Okay, so. There might have been a little tradecraft going on when we told you that Dad was in San Diego for a religious conference. He's doing some outside consulting and is overseas at the moment," she paused briefly. "Anything you wanna add, Henry?"

"No, that about covers it, babe! So, do you guys have any questions? We didn't want to worry you and we aren't actually allowed to tell you anymore because of security concerns, but that is what is happening right now. I'll be home tomorrow if we don't have any delays," Henry said as he tried to sound reassuring.

He wished he were home, sitting around the dining room table with his family. He could picture Elizabeth sitting in "his" spot at the table, surrounded by his stubborn Stevie, sweet Alison and his 'Mr. Anarchist' Jason. He hoped the kids wouldn't worry too much, but knew that telling them not to worry would be futile.

Stevie decided to take the lead for her siblings and just ask it.

"Dad, where exactly are you?"

Elizabeth's lips thinned and she swallowed heavily and blindly reached for her glass of red wine. _Keep it together._

Henry smirked. Leave it to Stevie to try and weasel more information out of him.

"You know I can't say, sweetheart! But I'll be home really soon, okay?" Henry said firmly.

Jason piped up. "It has to be somewhere dangerous, or Mom wouldn't be so tense and chugging her wine."

Elizabeth's head snapped up. "Excuse you, Jase. I can have a glass of wine with dinner, you know? It's not that out of the ordinary for me!"

Henry's heart sank. He was causing Elizabeth stress, and he _hated_ that. He could picture her quickly gulping down her wine — he remembered that she'd been a pro at that in college.

"Well…." Henry started.

"Are you sure? No specifics please." Elizabeth questioned, but she trusted her husband's judgment, especially when it came to the kids.

"Yeah, it's fine. I'm somewhere in the Middle East currently. I am safe and sound in an American Embassy and our plane leaves in an hour. I'll be home before you know it," Henry said with a smile on his lips.

The kids took a moment to process and Elizabeth poured herself another glass of wine. She put her hand to her temple momentarily; she could feel a headache coming on.

"Babe, you've been awfully quiet? How are you? The world isn't crashing down, so I'm assuming the State Department must be putting out some fires," he said in an attempt to connect with his wife.

Elizabeth chuckled in spite of the situation. "You know I can't talk about work lately! You're ignoring our homework from Dr. Sherman, remember?"

"Nah, I remember! We'll do bowling and burgers tomorrow!" Henry said excitedly as he reminisced about past date nights.

"But is anything wrong? You sound a little off."

To be honest, Henry was a little concerned about the love of his life. She could get so wrapped up in work that it was hard for her to turn it off and unwind, and he wasn't there to make sure she took proper care of herself.

"Henry, it's fine, I just have a little headache, that's all!" Elizabeth said as she sipped her wine.

Stevie scoffed. "Yeah, Mom, and more wine will help with that, I'm sure," she said sarcastically.

"Hush you," Elizabeth said mock-sternly. Her headache was getting worse though. She was officially done with the wine after this glass, and planned to wrap herself in one of Henry's old USMC sweatshirts and fall asleep on his side of the bed.

"Oh, honey, I'm sorry that you have a headache," Henry said concernedly. "You know what will help with that," he deepened his voice a little bit on purpose, as he knew Elizabeth couldn't resist. God, he loved it when her skin flushed that gorgeous crimson.

"A little —"

Elizabeth hastily grabbed the phone from the table and switched the speakerphone off. Jason pretended to gag, while Stevie and Alison just sighed and rolled their eyes.

"Henry, did you forget you were on speaker phone, or…?" Elizabeth said wide-eyed, while trying not to laugh at her children's faces.

Henry laughed. "Nah, I just enjoy screwing with our children _way_ too much."

Elizabeth had to laugh at Henry's boyish glee, and she settled back in her dining room chair with the phone cradled to her ear.

Stevie, Alison and Jason quickly exchanged glances and promptly decided to vacate the dining room so that their parents could do…whatever it was they wanted to do. God, they were so gross sometimes!

Laughing even further at her children's exit from the dining room, she waved away their half-hearted offers to help clean up the dishes and they scattered to the safety of their bedrooms.

"So are you finally alone yet?" Henry said with a glint in his eye.

Elizabeth was incredulous, but supposed she should have seen it coming.

"You used tradecraft on our children, Dr. McCord? Very sneaky — I like it," she said with a teasing smile. Henry could hear the smile in her voice. He flushed and wished for the millionth time that he was home, that he had taken the Chinook when he had the chance. Elizabeth sipped her wine and wished Henry was home with her.

"What are you wearing?" Henry said, hoping to get a rise out of her.

He heard a choking splutter on the other end of the line. "Shit, Henry. I just sprayed wine all over the damn table! Now I have to go clean it up." She tried to sound cross but he could hear the lilting amusement in her voice.

"Babe, just leave it for now. I mean, how much wine could you have sprayed?"

"You'd be surprised!" she said almost grimly, surveying the once-white dinner napkin in front of her. She sighed exasperatedly.

"I'm going to go get ready for bed, babe, I'm exhausted!" she said finally.

"Can I join you?" Henry said teasingly.

"Always, love!" she said with a laugh as she scampered up the stairs with the phone in hand. She made a mental note to lock the bedroom door this time, just in case one of the kids happened to wake up. She still wasn't over 5-year-old Alison accidentally walking in on the two of them once, and that had been over a decade ago. Her cheeks flushed just thinking about it.

She entered the bedroom and her eyes landed on a picture of her and Henry from their UVA days. God, he was handsome, and getting more handsome every day. It really wasn't fair!

"Babe? Hello? You still there?"

She was jolted out of her reverie by Henry's tinny voice on the static-y phone.

"Yeah, I'm here! Sorry, I was just thinking," she said absentmindedly.

"About what?" Henry was curious as to what made her become so quiet.

"Just reminiscing about our UVA days. And worrying about you, I guess. You need to come home. I need you home," Elizabeth said emotionally, feeling at loose ends without Henry, like a ship without an anchor.

Henry was quiet for a moment. For the millionth time today, the millionth time during the phone call home, he wished he were home.

"Well Mrs. McCord, let's see what we can do to make you stop thinking for a bit, okay?" Henry said soothingly and a bit devilishly.

Elizabeth bit her lip and smiled in anticipation. She had been taking all the throw pillows off the bed, and she crossed to the other side of the room to close — and lock — the door.

"Now, where were we?"

The following night, Elizabeth was anxiously flitting from room to room — watering plants that didn't need to be watered, fluffing pillows, and wiping nonexistent dust from coffee tables and bookshelves.

She came into the living room where the kids were sprawled in front of the TV and continued on her quest to clean the entire house before Henry came home.

Stevie took a stack of magazines from Elizabeth's hand, startling her from her trance, and gently pushed her toward the couch.

"Will you sit down? You're making me nervous!" Stevie said with an anxious laugh.

Elizabeth reluctantly sat on the end of the couch, with Stevie next to her and Jason and Alison on the other couch. She fiddled with her necklace, her bracelets, and checked her watch frequently.

She heard a scraping in the hall as the front door opened and she sprang up from the couch, almost running to the door. She wouldn't feel whole until she saw — _Henry_.

 _Oh thank God._ Hearing the kids behind her, she closed the distance between herself and her husband, feeling his eyes on her, soaking in her every move.

Elizabeth all but melted into Henry's arms as she tried to collect herself, but to no avail. She could feel tears spring to her eyes as he wrapped his arms firmly around her and she inhaled his unique scent.

She felt Henry kiss the top of her head, and was almost bowled over by the sheer, painful relief she felt at having her husband finally home. She threaded her hands through his hair and met his lips in a searing kiss. The force of her kiss almost made Henry stagger backwards and he worked to regain his balance and keep them both on their feet.

Elizabeth could feel the kids clamoring for their father's attention and she reluctantly pulled back so Henry could wrap his kids in the biggest hug of their lives.

"Hi sweetheart! Hey, Noodle! Hi, Big Man!" Henry said emotionally. In that moment, he was so grateful to be home with the love of his life and their children by his side.

Elizabeth stood to the side for a second, letting the kids each have a moment with their father, and then piled in for a big Team McCord group hug. The hug broke up quicker than most, as Jason accidentally elbowed Stevie in the ribs and Stevie left the pile in a huff, heading to the dining room to begin clean up. Alison soon followed Stevie, shooting Jason a quick, undecipherable look.

The McCord daughters wanted to give their parents some space and they hoped that their idiot brother would get the hint. Soon enough, Jason retreated into the dining room as well — he _so did not_ need to see his parents make out, thankyouverymuch.

Elizabeth and Henry were too wrapped up in each other to notice their kids slipping out of the room; they only had eyes for one another. Moving as if part of one being, they met in the middle. Henry pulled Elizabeth's hips flush against his own and gently pecked her on the lips, reveling in finally being home with his love, his touchstone, his everything.

"Hi," he said, giddy at the prospect of being home.

"Hi," Elizabeth said breathlessly as she tucked her head against his chest and snuggled into his embrace.

After a moment, Elizabeth spoke. "I, uh…I was really scared, Henry. You could have called me!" She said the last bit more ferociously; she needed an outlet for all of her conflicting emotions, and Henry was right there.

Henry briefly closed his eyes at the fury and sheer terror in his wife's voice.

"I know, baby, and I'm so sorry. I just did what I had to do and prayed I'd make it home to you," he said, swallowing hard.

Elizabeth sounded so small, like a little girl lost on a playground. "I was really worried about you, okay? Please don't do that to me again. I can't…I can't lose you. After all we've been through — Iran, Dmitri, the bombing — this was the closest I've ever felt to losing you and I couldn't breathe or think or function without you."

Henry kissed her again, holding her close in his strong arms. _This_ is what he'd been wanting since the plane took off from U.S. soil — _she_ was his home.

He pulled back slightly to look at her beautiful blue eyes. God, his wife was gorgeous. And she was _his_. They chose each other every day, and he could not be more thankful.

He smiled slightly. "Babe, don't you know by now?"

Elizabeth looked up at him with confusion. "Know what?"

He grinned even wider; his wife was just so damn cute.

"I'll show up for you. Always."


End file.
